Announcing our new project, The Heroic Future

Our culture is full of dire predictions, disaster scenarios and post-apocalyptic tales. It’s astonishing, though, how few stories we tell about futures where humanity succeeds.

That’s a problem. I believe it’s literally true that we can’t build what we can’t imagine. The fact that we haven’t compellingly imagined a thriving, dynamic, sustainable world is a major reason we don’t already live in one.

Our challenges are epic. If building a better world seems out of our reach, then we need to become people who can reach farther. We extend that reach by embracing bigger visions. To become people capable of doing heroic things together, we have to imagine a heroic future.

That’s the quest I’m asking you to join me on: imagining that heroic future, and the paths we take to get there.

For the last five years, I’ve been passionately committed to exploring planetary futurism — working to understand both the kind of world we need to build and what kind of creativity can help us imagine that world. Now I’m ready to share what I’ve discovered, and it all starts with a three-part “live documentary,” The Heroic Future. It’s going to be innovative, awesome, and maybe even important. It’s definitely the best work I’ve ever done.

Each 90-minute show is centered around a talk, incorporating stage presentation, film and photography, visual design and motion graphics, sound, music and lighting to tell a powerful story of where we are, where we need to go, and the kind of stories that might guide us through the planetary crisis we face.

The series will run three nights, September 20th, 21st and 22nd. Each of these performances will be presented in an intimate venue to a live audience in the Bay Area, and filmed and recorded for those who can’t be there in person. But whether you’re in the room, watching the videos or listening to the recordings, you’ll be part of creating something special and powerful: a new way of looking at the future.

1) Back the project. You know how crowdfunding works. Early support on these things is critical. It would mean the world to me if you’d go show your support right now.

2) Share the project. The Kickstarter page has buttons you can use to tweet your support and share the project on Facebook or Tumbler. Please use social media to spread the word. Just a few clicks will do it.